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Homeless Services
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The McKinney-Vento Act is designed to address the problems that homeless children and youth have faced in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under this act, each state educational agency must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public pre-school education, as other children and youth.
Homeless children and youth should have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging state student academic achievement standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment.
States and school districts are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school or homeless children and youth.
According to the McKinney-Vento Act, a homeless student is defined as one who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. More specifically, this means the following:
- Sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reason (doubled-up)
- Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of adequate alternative accommodations
- Living in emergency or transitional shelters
- Abandoned in hospitals
- Awaiting foster care placement
- Living in a public or private place not designed for humans to live
- Living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, etc.
- Migratory children living in above circumstances
- Unaccompanied youth who are experiencing the above circumstances